Ildefonso Aguilar, who lives and works in Lanzarote, is considered an
important representative of the ecology movement on the island. Aguilar
expresses his closeness to the island landscape in his paintings,
musical compositions and architectural works. His themes are the four
elements fire, water, air and earth. In addition to acrylic paint he
uses natural materials such as volcanic ash or sand.
Between 1963 and 1968, he studied art in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. In
Arrecife, he taught painting and drawing for six years. Since his main
field of oil painting on canvas did not satisfy him personally, he
devoted himself increasingly to a lifelong passion, photography.
Over time he found his way back to painting: he had developed a new
technique in which he edited photos with sand, and created surfaces with
glue and grains, giving a new structure to his paintings. Soon he tried
it on wood, for example the wood that has been traditionally used for
shipbuilding, and in this way developed the first sand images which have
a unique expression due to their own characteristics and precision.
Through his five trips to Iceland, he is now inspired by the nature of
the largest volcanic island of the earth, which, despite its northern
location has much in common with his homeland, especially the geological
origin.
Today Ildefonso Aguilar is one of the few artists who uses the
sand-technique in paintings and photographs. By many layers of fine
sand, he gradually creates a landscape that reminds the viewer of
Lanzarote or Iceland.
